Just because you legally can film retail workers while they’re on the job doesn’t mean you should film retail workers while they’re on the job, a lesson one self-appointed First Amendment auditor discovered the hard way after harassing service employees during their workday.
While it’s unclear how the modern pastime of First Amendment auditing, a guerrilla process largely designed to make sure that Americans retain their Constitutional right to free speech while on government property and interacting with cops and other government employees translated to filming workers through a store window, tensions were running high from the first moments of their recorded interaction.
Store Employees Call Cops on 1st Amendment Auditors
byu/Anarchist226 inPublicFreakout
“You can’t video into the store, we’re going to call the cops if you don’t stop,” a visibly irritated store employee told the cameraman, shooing him further onto the sidewalk.
Though the auditor initially played coy, requesting that he engage in “a normal conversation” before involving the authorities, the worker wasn’t having it.
“We already tried to,” she said, throwing her hands up. “Apparently it didn’t happen.”
Despite her repeated pleas for the man to stop filming into their store, the auditor refused to back down, continually berating the employees for asking not to be on camera.
“You’re filming us without our permission,” said another clearly frustrated employee, noting that while the auditor had a right to film on a public sidewalk, turning his camera into their store, which would technically be considered private property, broke their store policies — and was just plain weird.
“Doesn’t matter! Your door is wide open,” the cameraman fired back. “Do you understand how the law works?”
Though the world may never know whether these retail workers are well-versed in First Amendment law, it appeared the self-appointed auditor was definitely not.
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